Principal David Zaid announced during a third-grade assembly Monday that a handful of students would receive bicycles.

Then he announced that a few extra bicycles would be given out.

When he told the students that, actually, every third-grader would get a bicycle, the children cheered, squealed and jumped for joy.

“It’s just amazing how I got this, you know?” said Bryson Watts, 9. The third-grader, like his classmates, received the bicycle by writing an essay about what he would do to improve his community and how a bike would help.

Local cycling club Velo Allegro and the YMCA of Greater Long Beach teamed up to provide the “Bikes for Kids” event at Stevenson. The organizations fund-raised for several months this year to hand out 122 bicycles, helmets and locks to the students. The gift cost $8,000, and the club raised $2,000 more members can use to put on the same event next year.

“We’re all very passionate about bicycling,” said Bill Pullano, Velo Allegro president. “This is an opportunity to give back to the community and maybe get the kids involved in the same passion that we have.”

The YMCA and Velo Allegro were inspired to organize the event by Bill and Debbie Pollakov of San Diego County, who’ve organized “Bikes for Kids” programs there. Stevenson, in Central Long Beach, was the school site chosen because it is a Title I school, which means most students there qualify for free or reduced lunches.

Moreover, Stevenson Elementary is a YMCA academic enrichment site, meaning students from the school participate in the Y’s before- and after-school care program, according to Alfredo Velasco, president and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Long Beach. Velasco also belongs to Velo Allegro.

Pullano said that the bicycle giveaway would not only be a source of pleasure for the students but would also allow them to be more physically active, gain a sense of independence and even improve their studies by traveling via bike to the public library. He added that requiring students to pen essays about bettering their communities may result in students becoming more engaged in their neighborhoods.

Bryson wrote in his essay that he would like to raise money to improve his community. His mother, Jackie Watts, said she was ecstatic her son had received a new bicycle.

“I think it’s fantastic,” she said. “It’s such a wonderful opportunity to encourage them to do better. It’s such a blessing at Christmastime.”

Jezebel Carreon, the mother of third-grader Arlann Quiroz, couldn’t quite believe that her son was leaving school with a new bicycle.

“I’m shocked,” she said. “It’s a blessing that he got a bike. He wanted a bike for Christmas.”

Velo Allegro and the YMCA of Greater Long Beach organized the bike giveaway in early December precisely because they figured the gift could help relieve some of the financial pressures parents feel during the holiday season.

Pullano said that about 10 of the third-graders had never ridden a bicycle and another 15 were very inexperienced riders.

“It made my year just to see how excited they were to have bikes, to be able to get something,” Pullano said. “I don’t have the words to describe it.”